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Maurice, Elector of Saxony - Protestatio facta (MSS 144)
A contemporary report of a remonstration against the Imperial policy of Charles V for participation in the recently convened ecumenical Council of Trent on terms proposed by the new Pope Julius III (del Monte). The Elector Maurice, of the Ernestine branch of the Wettin family of the duchies of Saxony, was one of the great and enigmatic figures of German history in the mid 16th century. He had been won over to the Habsburg side by the diplomacy of Charles and his successor Ferdinand, and had in 1547 been invested with the dignity of Elector of Saxony held till then by his cousin John Frederick. Earlier in the 1550 Diet of Augsburg he had been entrusted with the task of reducing to the Imperial allegiance the city of Magdeburg, still holding out for the Protestant Schmalkaldic league, but, as this protest shows, he was far from an uncritical adherent of Charles V's.
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